Contents:
00:00-01:05 Takao Iba - "Port of Kobe New Years Celebration, Maya Pier #1 Berth, December 31, 1995" from "Kobe Soundscenes," private issue, 1996
00:46-02:26 Takao Iba - "Bullet Train Landing, Shin-Kobe Station, November 9, 1996," from "Kobe Soundscenes" (above).
02:05-03:23 Takao Iba - "Subway, Shin-Kobe > Sannomiya (passes through Sannomiya, Kamisawa and Shin-Nagata due to construction) > Kenchomae" from "Earthquake Train Announcements," private issue, 1995.
Dr. Takao Iba was I believe a professor at Kobe University, Japan. He rode the train every morning to work, so he was well positioned to document the damage to the train system after the Great Hanshin earthquake in Kobe on Tuesday, January 17, 1995 at 05:46:53 JST, one of the strongest quakes to ever hit Japan (7.2 on the Richter scale). Once service began resuming a month later, he endeavored to record all of the unique, temporary train announcements which alerted passengers to closures and re-routes. He released these in a CD he titled "Audio of the Great Hanshin Earthquake - The Crippled Transit System," which got considerable press in Japan.
www.lib.kobe-u.ac.jp/directory/eqb/audio/iba1996/english/iba.html
www.lib.kobe-u.ac.jp/directory/eqb/audio/iba/english/index.html
www.lib.kobe-u.ac.jp/directory/eqb/audio/iba/english/sound.html
After all the death and destruction however, he was anxious to return to recording happier times in Kobe. "Once I finished recording the train announcements in the attempt to leave behind a record of the interrupted Kobe railway service resulting from the Hanshin earthquake disaster, I no longer had the desire to pursue my subjective interests as far as recording sounds is concerned. I felt that walking around with a microphone in the midst of such tremendous damage and suffering transcended the limits of decency."
www.lib.kobe-u.ac.jp/directory/eqb/audio/iba1996/english/sound.html